THE THREE INVESTIGATORS
FIND YOUR FATE
BOOKS
Part 1: The four Three Investigators Find Your Fate Mystery books.
Four Find Your Fate (FYF) Mystery books were produced for The Three Investigators series by Random House. These are similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular in the 1980's. The reader has a decision or a choice to make on nearly every page which will affect the outcome of the story. This is your opportunity to actually be Jupiter Jones! Will you succeed or fail in solving the mystery . . .
The four T3I FYF books can be found in the "keyhole" paperback trade edition (there's a silhouette of a keyhole at the top of the spine, see picture below). They nicely match on the shelf with the original 43 T3I books and the Book of Mystery Puzzles from that same "keyhole" paperback edition. These books measure 7-5/8" x 5-1/8".
Each of the four T3I FYF titles are also found in a "Reinforced Library Binding" (RLB) hard-bound format and have slightly larger dimensions than the paperbacks, 8" x 5-1/2". These hardback RLB's are similar in construction to the sturdy and more familiar Random House Gibraltar Library Binding (GLB) but are smaller in size. True RLB's will have an oval logo on the rear cover containing the words "reinforced library binding" (see photo below).
Unlike the original 43 T3I titles in the "keyhole" paperback edition, the four FYF books are illustrated throughout. Each of the four books has 124 pages. The first two FYF books are fairly common and easy to acquire but the second two will require some effort to locate, especially "Savage Statue" which is scarce. All four FYF titles in the hardbound RLB edition are very difficult to find, especially in nice condition since most copies were used in libraries. (See pic of spines and rear covers, below.)
The four Three Investigators FYF Mystery books are:
#1 The Case of the Weeping Coffin - by Megan & H. William Stine, illustrated by John
Hulsey, 1985.
#2 The Case of the Dancing Dinosaur - by Rose Estes, illustrated by Vincente, 1985.
#7 The Case of the House of Horrors - by Megan & H. William Stine, illustrated by
Aristides Ruiz, 1986.
#8 The Case of the Savage Statue - by M.V. Carey, illustrated by Tom Leonard, 1987.
Do not be confused by the fact that the books are numbered 1, 2, 7, and 8 on the spines. There are four additional books in the Random House Find-Your-Fate series, but they DO NOT feature The Three Investigators and are completely unrelated (see further below).
Christian Andersch has created "graphical solution trees" for each of the four T3I FYF books. You can view these by clicking on the titles of each book, above.
Left: A complete set of the T3I FYF books in paperback and in RLB hardback editions.
Right: Rear covers of the trade paperback and RLB hardback editions. Note the oval RLB logo.
If a hardback doesn't have this then it is most likely a re-bind).
Part 2: The four Find Your Fate Fantasy and Thriller books.
There are four non-Three Investigators Find Your Fate books. #3 and #4 are FYF Fantasy books and #5 and #6 are FYF Thriller books. They are:
#3 The Thundercats and the Ghost Warrior - by Megan & H. William Stine, based on the
teleplay by Leonard Starr, illustrated by
Esteban Maroto, 1985.
#4 The Thundercats & the Snowmen of Hook Mountain - by Megan & H. William Stine,
based on the teleplay by Bob Haney,
illustrated by Martin Sauri, 1985.
#5 The Trail of Death - by Rose Estes, illustrated by Robert Adragna, 1985.
#6 The Mystery of the Turkish Tattoo - by Rose Estes, cover art by Robert Adragna,
illustrations by Toby Gowing, 1986.
Some facts, observations, and questions:
1. All copies of the eight FYF books that I have ever come across are First Printings with a number line of 1234567890 on the copyright page. Were there subsequent later printings of any of the books?
2. The first five FYF titles were published in 1985, #6 and #7 were published in 1986, and #8 was published in 1987.
3. The first two FYF books list to #2 inside, suggesting that they were published together in 1985.
4. FYF #'s 3, 4, and 5 all list to #5 inside, suggesting that they were all published together, but at a later date in 1985 than the first two FYF books.
5. Curiously, the two FYF Thrillers, #5 and #6, have smaller measurements, ~ 7" x 4-1/4", than all of the other six FYF books which measure 7-5/8" x 5-1/8". This seems odd given that #5 was published at the same time as #3 and #4 in 1985, and #6 was published at the same time as #7 in 1986. Why the different dimensions for these two books?
6. All of the FYF books have 124 pages except for the two FYF Fantasy books, #3 and #4, which each have 80 pages.
7. The four Three Investigators FYF Mystery books, #1, 2, 7, and 8, were all published as hardbacks in the sturdy Reinforced Library Binding (RLB) edition. It seems that the other four books were not.
8. It should be noted that these 8 Find Your Fate books were published by Random House. There are several other Find Your Fate sets, books that feature Indiana Jones, G.I. Joe, Doctor Who, James Bond, books by R.L. Stine, etc., that were published by Ballantine Books, a subsidiary of Random House. These are completely separate sets and should not be confused with the 8-book set featured here, published by Random House.
Left: The spines of all 8 FYF books in paperback, and the 4 T3I FYF RLB hardbacks.
Right: All 8 covers of the trade paperback edition. Note the difference in size of the two FYF Thriller
books, #5 and #6.
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